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>> and hello again, everybody. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm mandy drury sitting in for maria bartiromo. happy boxing day as well. >> christmas is over but mandy has been celebrating boxing day all day. we didn't get any presents from lawmakers in washington yet. we're still five days away from falling off the proverbial fiscal cliff and wall street, like everybody else, is waiting for some kind of a solution here, and as you can see by today's numbers the waiting game continues, although we thank brian sullivan and you, mandy, for bringing us back to positive territory in the last hour. >> i'm not sure we can take credit but we'll take it. >> the dow is up a fraction at the moment. 13,139 after a meandering much of the day. the nasdaq hardest hit today. technology has been very volatile recently. still down a fraction right now. 13 points, fraction percentage-wise and the s&p is down 3.33 at 1423.

five days left until the fiscal cliff deadline, and though the market has been very resilient to this point, what happens if we go over the cliff and if lawmakers cannot get it together come january 1st? will it be a big meltdown for wall street? that's what everybody wants to know. >> certainly hope know. in today's "closing bell" exchange, former chief economist of the vice president joe biden, oliver perch from gary goldberg and matt cheslock and rick santelli, thank you very much. jarred, you wrote an article called "cliff dive, what the heck happens next?" what does happen next? >> well, that's actually all up to john boehner, as i see it, because if we were to decide to bring the president's most recent small car compromise to the house i actually believe it would pass. the problem for him it would probably pass with mostly democrat vote, but i think it could get through the senate. that's the only scenario i see

by which we avoid going over the cliff. >> wait a minute. >> at least temporarily. >> wait a minute, jared. john boehner said it's up to the president and harry reid so are both sides standing at the precipice waiting for each other to make the next move. >> not really. it really is all up to john boehner to decide whether he wants to bring this vote to the house floor. if he doesn't, i would put on either your cliff bungee cord or your cliff parachute and that's actually an important difference. >> we would like a bungee cord and a parachute. >> right. >> but i would like to know maybe we have neither. what do you think happens to the market, matt, in either scenario, deal or no deal? >> i can't imagine we're going to get a deal done with any significance. you know, they are probably going to change it as we go forward so maybe they will let us go over the cliff, the market will crash a little bit. i don't want to say crash as in crash but we could retrace some of the gains and a rough start to 2013 until they finally realize that maybe the large-cap companies could be leading us through the rallies.

maybe it will take the stocks back up the latter half of 2013, first quarter. >> oliver, what are you doing with your clients' money right now? >> we think there will be a selloff as a result of all of this and also the debt ceiling debate coming up at the end of january and that's a buying opportunity because there's relatively strong, and strong gdp growth in the second half of 2013 so we would see a 5%, 7% selloff as a heck of a buying opportunity early in the year. >> i see you've got a year-end target for 2013. 1540, actually -- just looking at the 2013 predictions, you're pretty bullish. >> yeah. we think we're going to see a 6%, 6.5% return on the s&p. we think dividend-paying stocks will do even better and will focus on companies that are growing revenues and paying a strong dend. >> can i ask you a question about that scenario. >> of course. >> suppose we go over the cliff and stay over the cliff, that strikes me as a very potentially recessionary. in wouldn't that deal quite a

significant blow to the projection you just gave us? >> well, if you stay over the cliff, yes, but it's more of a mud slide. in other words, our baseline scenario is sometime by the second or third week of january there will be a resolution and that's largely based on the fact that plan "b" turns from a tax hike to a tax cut as of january 1st. >> so your forecast is -- your forecast is conditional on a resolution and that makes more sense to me. >> rick santelli, i mean, even if we do go over the cliff, anyone you've spoken to that actually believes we would stay interest. >> wouldn't we claw back at some point? >> i think that whether we go over the cliff in the traditional cnbc sense or not, we're still in for a lot of issues, and i particularly want to address my buddy jared. first of all, you know, happy holidays, jared. >> thank you. >> but you did work for joe biden, okay? and how you can be -- how you can be here telling us all how bad it is to go over the fiscal cliff when senators barack obama, senator joe biden,

senator harry reid in 2006 all turned down w's request to raise the debt ceiling . >> the fiscal cliff was born in 2011. >> he didn't like it then but he wants today. he wants carte blanche today. >> let him answer, rick. >> i listened to you. please listen to me. i know that's not easy for you. >> okay. >> but please listen to me. >> not easy because you don't say anything consistent. >> the seeds of the fiscal cliff were planted in 2001 with the ten-year window for the bush tax cuts. secondly, look, you're not going to like this, rick, but the fact is the president has come more than halfway in terms -- he

hasn't come anywhere. he's come halfway on 7%. he hasn't come halfway on the other side, the entitlement side, the reform side. we're going to a too light deal that's too small. >> a lot of people are saying he wants to go over the cliff because it gives him more leverage. >> yes. >> his treasury secretary said that. tim geithner said that on cnbc. >> right. >> well, look, i mean, first of all, i don't believe he wants to go over the cliff, but if we go over the cliff, the economic downturn only occurs as others have said in this very segment if we stay over. if we go over and quickly reverse the damage. it's not good. it's bad, but it's a lot better than the recessionary scenario of staying over. >> rick? >> i listened. doesn't change my mind what. are you going to be saying four years from today? >> we didn't expect it to. >> matt, what do you make of what's going on today? expecting anything, all about the fiscal cliff or what's the mood of the market? >> i'm sorry. >> it's a shame that's all we're talking about right now because

there are some things we could probably focus on. >> like what? >> again, it's corporate. it's large corporations. no one is talking about small caps right now. generally in january they probably have a pretty good mood. everybody is talking about dividend-paying stocks, large caps, where there's liquidity, can get in and get out and it all ties back to the fiscal cliff. that's all we're talking about and why do anything until then? >> rick has been waiting all y day. >> whether we're sick of it or not, it has to be resolved. >> meantime, counting down, 50 minutes until the closing bell. the dow was positive when we started the show. let's call it the "street signs" glow. we've gone back into the negative territory slightly. >> see what we can do here in the last hour of the trade. if you don't think people are feel the effects of the fiscal cliff, think again. we look at very real effects of

the cliff on holiday sales and the numbers coming out are not all that pretty. plus, don't count out mother nature as the east coast faces another nor'easter. >> meantime, starbucks is worried about the fiscal cliff. the nation's biggest coffee chain is planning to take its message to washington. would that be enough to jolt lawmakers into action? >> and as the year winds to a close, the head of aetna is back with us winding up for higher taxes in 2013 thanks to obama care. wait until you hear how high he thinks they could go. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. stamps.com is the best. i don't have to leave my desk and get up and go to the post office anymore. [ male announcer ] with stamps.com you can print real u.s. postage

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well, we're getting numbers in. turns out retailers saw the weakest holiday season since 2008 hurt by bad weather and more uncertainty about the rising tax increases that could come next year. we're wondering if the concerns will continue to keep shoppers from spending into 2013. >> let's ask our guests. ladies, thanks so much for having us. i nearly said thank you for

having us. thanking you for coming on the show. stacy, here we are day in and day out on the financial news talking about the fiscal cliff, economists talk about the fiscal cliff and politicians talk about the fiscal cliff. we're wondering whether mom and pops at home talk about the fiscal cliff. is a lack of a budget deal actually spooking shoppers out on main street? >> it is. walmart told us 75% of their customers have cite that had they are worried about the fiscal cliff. mandy, you and i were on last week talking about the luxury retailers and we called out saks saying business pre-holiday was particularly weak. what are the people in the stores telling me all week, saying that this is the worst pre-christmas they had seen in over a decade, and part of that was because their consumers are worried about the fiscal cliff, so note to the government. it does matter. >> yeah, but that's, as you say, part of it. laura, what else is going on? it just felt like we were going into a lackluster season here.

what happened? >> i mean, there's been some discussion about weather trends as well, but whether or not we go over the fiscal cliff, consumers think next year we'll see higher taxes and lower entitlements. the only place in our space where we see a very significant fiscal cliff hit is aspirational customer, so the step-up customer into low-end tiffany's jewelry, for example, we just don't think they showed up this year. >> even if people, stacy, are going to be hit by higher taxes next year, at least some people are going to be hit by higher taxes next year, a lot of this is psychological, isn't it. you turn on the tv and you're feeling spooked, right? and once we have a deal or resolution, uncertainty taken away, will people unleash their spending? will this be unlocked? >> i think at the high end, yes, there will be some relief, and, you know, to laura's point, we were in tiffany over the weekend, you would be shocked how much sales help was available on the silver floor. typically you can't get near a

sales person there. >> right. >> but a lot of it is psychological, but then again, christmas has come and gone and the full-margin products have come and gone. you fix the fiscal cliff and go into clearance and that's are where retailers make their sales. >> you call this period panic time for these retailers, don't you? >> it is panic time. it's been a disappointing season. we haven't heard the numbers from specific retailers. that's right around the corner, but you can bet based on, you know, what i was hearing in the stores, it was doom and gloom. you can bet that retailers will be hitting the clearance panic button, and that is bad for gross margins, even though we have very easy comparisons for last year. >> bad for them and good for us, the shopper, right? >> laura, let's talk -- >> great for us. >> laura, stock winners and losers this season? >> we really like williams sonoma in part because they have a huge skew online. most of the profits come from

e-commerce so even if spending is overall dampened, there's more migrating online. losers, like we said, tiffany's may have trouble at the higher margin, lower price points, but i think we should look at some of the big winners this year to pull back next year. those would include gap and lowe's, a number of retailers who worked really well in 2012 may not see as bright a future as in 2013. >> what about the big boxes, how did they do this year? >> i would agree with laura on gap, and also abercrombie, a stock with a huge run and you saw the velvet ropes outside the stores. we saw them in new york and guess what? we saw them in london and behind the velvet ropes inside sued the stores there were very few people lined up buying items so i would watch out for abercrombie and certainly with the bigger box space, you know,

you'll see mixed signals. everybody is under pressure. target might do a little bit better because they have had an interesting collaboration project with neiman so i think there's weakness across the board but targetsed macy's will outperform the group. >> you like limited brand? >> one of the most consistent retailers out there. i personally own the stock and they have a history of special dividends. a player with always newness in the store and started their international flagship in london. it's doing phenomenally well so an international piece of the puzzle is just starting. >> laura, online, i heard some big numbers percentage-wise gains year over year on how online buying was going. is that good or bad for the retailers overall right now? >> the vast majority of the retailers we follow have a small part of their business online.

for the online business to be booming, if there's not something similar to drive traffic in the store, there's concerns there. one of our best online retailers urban outfitters is going to stop breaking out store versus e-commerce so the concern is perhaps they will mask weakness in the stores and hope that the overall growth, particularly online growth care its the retail as well compared to williams sonoma, by far the leader of the group. >> ladies, thank you both for joining us. appreciate it very much. >> thank you. >> have a happy holiday. >> and to you as well. >> about 45 minutes left in the trading session. the dow down five points. we're playing the waiting game in washington. >> let the blame game begin. we are asking which stock is the

better one? and what about the impact obama care will have and jobs may be on the line if we go over the fiscal cliff. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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>> wall street was not able to give us a fiscal cliff for christmas and that's weighing on textures. the nasdaq is underperforming the minimum wage or indices. some of our large-cap tech shares including apple and some of the online players like amazon and ebay losing face in today's trade. one stock i want to point your attention to, marvell technology, plunging the last hour. the headline weighing on shares of marvell. they lost a $1.7 billion verdict in a carnegie-mellon lawsuit where carnegie-mellon accused marvell of patent infringement. the stock is down better than 11%. bill? >> seema thank you very much. well, if your plan for christmas eve was to watch a movie on netflix you might have been disappointed. the outage left users without the video streaming capability, but the company blamed it on its arch rival amazon and its cloud computing services.

brouhaha aside, we're wondering which stock is the better buy right now because that's what we do on talking numbers. let's do on the technical side and fundamental side with steve cortes. good to see you both. one has been a stellar performer and the other not so much. what do you like right now? >> bill, you just summed it up. the news came out over the weekend and the market is telling you what you should believe in. netflix is up 1% and amazon down 3.5%. look at the chart in amazon, you can see it's been showing us this over the last four months. amazon put a high in at 261. about eight days ago tried to take out that high and couldn't do it. it put in a double top. that's a sign of a -- you know, of a failure. you have a stock like amazon who basically -- the stock failed at 261 and now we have a 20-day moving average which it broke through and 209-day moving average, the last time it broke

through the 20-day moving average it fell 13%. now we look over at netflix, that's a totally different story, right you? said it was a dog. it bottomed out at $54 and broke above its 20-day moving average and stayed above its 20-day moving average for the last four weeks. if it stays above its $20 moving average we're going to long this. our price together 120 to 130. >> steve, sure looked like a double top on amazon. >> it does. it's concerning. it's the reason why i don't own amazon right here because the technicals look like there's a double forming near 265, and i think retail in general doesn't trade terribly well right now. however, if the technical pulled back and continues on amazon i want to be a buyer and it's important to keep perspective. when we talk about amazon failing against all-time highs just in september whereas we look at netflix, a few very good

weeks. netflix is a broken story, and if you're in this broken story use this lift that we've seen recent weeks to get out of netflix. >> steve has been talking about the fundamentals and technicals. i've been in the business for 16 years and there's been no profit in either company, especially amazon. day traders like to tray, but it's not making any money. they are selling kindles for free to get people to shop at amazon, and no one is shopping. you just saw the updated numbers that came out this morning. >> well, jeff, yes, i'll concede its most recent quarter was not profitable, but it's been a profitable company. not nearly as much as a lot of folks would see and there's a reason. they have been taking market share and doing it in the cloud.

use the cloud streaming services of amazon which is indicative of what an important player amazon is becoming in that field as well. it's an expensive stock. you're paying an astronomical p and still a dominant player in e-commerce and one of the new areas where it's dominant is the iphone this year. >> two companies we've been following very closely this year. thanks for joining us on "talking numbers." see you later. happy holidays. mandy? >> a quick look at what's happening with the markets right now. the do you is just hitting flat with the down side barely moving at this point. of course, we're counting down to the bell. also got aetna's ceo who says his hiring plans for the new year will definitely be affected by the fiscal cliff, and get this, he also says health care costs could double for some groups by 2014 due to obama care. we've got aetna's ceo coming up next. and also just what our

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as we all know the clock is ticking. u.s. debt clock continues to tick as the fiscal cliff clock ticks down and the debt clock is going up as we get closer to the deadline. aetna's ceo has been outspoken on the potential dire consequences, even to his own company, if we go over the cliff, so where does he stand today with less than six days to go? >> joining us in an exclusive interview on cnbc is chairman and ceo of aetna. great to have you on the show. >> great to be here, thanks. >> back in november you threatened either a hiring freeze or maybe the layoffs if a fiscal cliff deal was not reached. still no deal as we stand. only a few days to go. are you actually planning a hiring freeze or layoffs? >> i think every business man plans the fall part of the year, particularly if they are on a calendar fiscal year.

we put "x" percent of our budget at risk with a contingency just in case things go bad in the economy. >> what percentage is that now? >> i don't want to tip off to the street what our -- what our plan is, but what i will say is that we have doubled our contingency this year which puts in a set of action plans that we act on depending on what happens in the economy. so we pull back on cap "x" and gain cap "x" and we include head count. >> us a well know, mark, we've had a whole parade of ceos like you who tell us the very same story. we're waiting. what are you waiting for? what would you like to see from washington that gets to you unleash that cap "x" and other things? >> the best deal would be a big deal. >> you want a grand bargain? >> i mean, americans don't want plan "b." they don't want a short-term fix. they want the very best we can come up with, plan "a" and we should be focused on that.

>> doesn't that have to include higher taxes, maybe even higher corporate taxes, lower government spending. i mean, that in and of itself is an austerity plan that we're waiting for, isn't it? >> i don't think it's necessarily austerity. the reductions in spending over time can happen over time, the way our government keeps track is over a decade. >> right. >> so we don't need to do it all today, and as far as higher taxes go, there's a group of people who will sign this pledge not to raise taxes, and, you know, more than two-thirds are millionaires who said, you know what, we'll pay more taxes because in the end analysis, the investment we would make in paying more in taxes to get the economy going will return in wealth very quickly if we get the economy back to where it should be. >> there's a very good article on cnbc.com about the possibility that congress might decide to start tax is employer-sponsored health insurance. do you think that's a possibility, and what impact would that have on you? >> everything needs to be on the table. if we're going to have a good

solution that gets at our deficit and reduce our debt everything has to be on the table and we'll deal with it. it's great to have rules. we just like to know what they are so we can make the right investments moving forward. >> even if it puts us in a climate of slow growth, even more slow growth than the economy which would be the kind of a climate where you as a ceo wouldn't want to invest in that anyway, you know what i mean? >> so i think a grand bargain won't create a slow economy. i think it will restore confidence and we'll all invest. we'll know what the rules are and the game plan is. weied be ready to move ahead. we have opportunities to grow all the way around the world. we need to know where to put our capital investment. if we know what the rules are, we'll invest. 60% to 65% of our costs are people and we put people back to work every day. >> you don't expect a grand bargain? >> no.

>> meaning? >> a short-term fix and perhaps a recession. they talk about this bungee approach and i don't think that's helpful. let's take it away from american businesses and take it away from the rich people. let's talk about the people who really get impacted by a recession and that's the poor and the middle class based on their returns or where ever they have things invested. who are we hurting me. >> >> let's get on to obama care. originally the whole idea was to save money, cut costs, et cetera, but you've recently said the new health care law could cause insurance premiums to doublery 2013. ? >> there's some places where the premiums will go up by 100%. a 49-year-old in texas can buy a $5,000 deductible policy that's well below the 60% threshold so if i'm at a 45% threshold

policy, the and it goes up to 60%, you have a 33% increase just to moving the benefits up. >> seems crazy, that the system is broken and could still double by 2014. >> if we're going to warn americans, somebody's got to pay for it. >> how do you think it's going to pay out, who is going to or what? >> i think it won't start right away like everyone hopes it will. there won't be an october 1st, 2013, are a bright new plan available for everybody, and it's not going to be cheaper, but i think it will be a start and it will be fits rand smart. if we want to insure more americans, and in the long run if we control our krosts we can

control that over time, bring in back in line. the higher proem dums you talking about, does that measly mean higher percentage for you? >> no necessarily because the people coming in will cost more. >> do you think they get it done by the december 31st deadline? >> i don't. >> the can is readying itself to be kicked i feel. thanks for joining us tonight. >> we'll see you, thank you. >> okay. we're on the countdown mode here. 25 minutes to go, and at this stage the dow has not moved. i tell a lie. it's moved two points to the downside. virtually not moving. >> that's correct. this powerful storm that is making its way across the country now is starting to wreak off acon the east coast as we speak. we'll tell you if the weather could put a damper on wall

street's trading action this week, even as we wait for the fiscal cliff. speaking of all wet, is washington throwing the fiscal cliff talks down. >> held hostage, the head of a california company tells lawmakers what he thinks about the fiscal cliff. >> i'm brad adams and the ceo of sun stone component group in california. if the politicians in washington don't get this situation resolved, undoubtedly there will be a downturn in economic activity and a direct impact to our business. it's a very severe situation. treat this as an economic problem and stop playing politics and take leadership for the situation and get it resolved.

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moves can often be exaggerated and certainly did see that today. had a technical rally that moved to the upside even as stocks faded. oil actually closed at highs of the session, a two-month high to be exact. right near $91 a barrel. we will not be getting the inventory numbers until friday because of the christmas holiday, but we are expecting to get industry inventory numbers tomorrow, and we're seeing a bit of a move up along in heating oil and natural gas as that snow is now closing in on i guess about half of the country now, bill and mandy. >> yeah, it looks like it hasn't reached outside here yet. >> we've seen a little bit here. seeing some flakes. >> thank you, bertha. >> on christmas eve, no less, a few flakes. >> had a few. >> yeah. >> look at this chart from our friends. this shows since 1928 the s&p 500 averaged its greatest december percentage gains in the

last few days. >> but there's a big but, the fiscal cliff is still unresolved, and there's only three trading days left in the year. could this still be a santa claus rally or ho-hum or ho, ho, ho. what do you reckon, david? >> morgan stanley wealth management, everybody, the best thing to watch this month, and bob pisani pointed this out. the transportation stocks have been very strong. china has been strong. mandy, you know, japan has been strong, and the banks have been strong. to me there's an underlying strength to the market when some of the bodyguards have been doing well so i think the market wants to do better. that having been said the fiscal cliff will turn out to be not a maxi deal but a mini deal and will clip the economy not by 1% but a 2% and a 60% chance something will get done but that's where we come out on it right now. a little bit harder hit to the economy. >> don't adjust your sets,

everybody. this is what bob sounds like today. >> this is a different exchange here. >> not doing your imitation of david? >> what do you think that the seasonal factors are a major reason why the markets are holding up so well? if you look at the havens, gold, treasuries, for example, the dollar, there's no sign of panic in the haven. >> silver is down. you've seen a little bit of a lift in the vix, closer to 20. that's not bad, a normalization type of thing. treasuries have sold off a little bit. that means the patient is leaving the hospital. the patient was on intensive care earlier in the year back in june. the biggest day of the year was june 19th. that's the day of the second greek election when that guy came in who did not take them out of euro to. meet biggest things that happened this year were things that didn't happen. no greece exit, no china hard landing and no u.s. slipping into a recession. therefore, the market has been able to lift. >> the last thing that may not

happen is the fiscal cliff resolution, too. that could throw an iron in the fire. we've all got to be mindful of the possible debt downgrade. moody's and fitch are still at aaa and they have been rumbling they might take us down, and i think if s&p goes down a notch, mandy, that's not good for the market. >> the fact that these predictions did not come true i guess show that making predictions -- >> it shows the value of strategists. >> okay. >> it shows the value of vat jists. >> what are you predicting for 2013? >> i think you have to watch things in europe. the big day is the september 11th elections in germany and germany could be harder after the election. in the first half is the sent

ceiling discussion and finally profits, personal income and production, if those can do better than the markets can lift but right now the view is for a nothing market from here till year end. once the seasonal increases go away, we could have tax increases rand spending cuts if we get a deal. why is that going on a headwind for the stock market? >> i think it will be. if the taxes go up, i think that's something that hurts consumer confidence. you've seen the retail sales in the last part of this season here, have sold off, and many people have said it's because of the fiscal cliff. >> kind of depressing when you say it's a nothing market between now and the end of 2013. how do you make money, if you want to see it's going to be a -- >> he knows rhyme going to say

buy apple. it's up 20%, up 50% and some off a little bit. if it sells off, you'll have nice dividend stocks like ant anti--sizer, the subplatform of all of the smartphones. >> there's way to make money. stay away from energy and industrials. >> talking of counting down. 15 minutes to go before the closing bell. the dow is down by 17 point but, you know, we're not really moving much at all. >> have you heard of euclid? that's what weather forecasters have named this monster storm hitting the east coast right now. our friends at the weather channel will show you the latest storm track coming up. >> and plus, how will euclid

impact wall street? find out what the traders are daying next, first in business worldwide.

it is cold and it is ugly and it is snowing outside right now, and it is pretty much that way for most of the northeast thanks to this winter storm that's dumping snow on much of the east coast. the weather channel's danielle banks has more. >> hi there. maybe you were dealing with family drama and today we're dealing with weather drama so no holiday would be complete without some drama and still lot of that going on for locations with tornado watches through 5:00. the storms have definitely made significant progress since yesterday. so we're backing things up for you about 24 hours ago, and then, of course, we're following the progression of this storm system as it continues to pump not only the severe weather aspects across the mid-atlantic but into the northeast, too. here's a look at the snowfall reports and you can see spanning the gamut from half a foot to

over a foot. updating the totals throughout the day. several locations through ohio and pennsylvania which has not only been picking up with the snowfall but then locations in the pink is where we've been dealing with significantishing as well across ohio and pennsylvania where those icing reports have been pretty steady. outside of west virginia and certa southeastern maryland, causing a huge amount of accidents out there on the road but just in general. if you see the barricades heed the warnings of your local officials. as we project you, again, into the later stages of today and then, of course, heading into your thursday, we'll be talking about more snowfall amounts across the northeast, and this is really important with so many people trying to travel back from their christmas holiday, so we definitely want to let you know about the increased amounts of snowfall that we're going to

see in particular across portions of new york. now, if you are going to be traveling in new york for today, this is where we are expecting to still see the biggest delays, this will also be the case and believe tomorrow will be easier than friday. >> well put. we've had a wild week for much of the country as this storm made its way across and the fiscal cliff deadline five days away. after today there are only three trading sessions left in 2012. >> yeah. let's break it all down and bring in ben willis here with us on set. ben, we could talk about lots of things. what are traders saying? >> already have. >> what's the buzz on the floor today? today everybody is talking about

home so this holiday week, a slow week, another wasted clean shirt and bus fare. >> how are you trieding right now? >> the flow that you've seen trying to deflect the market, only a corner thumbprint to look at. energies right now are a plus side area and the negative side, you're seeing the consumer stocks under pressure because of the microsoft story and you and i have been of the same find on the fiscal climbed. you like this market, but we are getting close to the deadline. does it matter if we go past anyone? >> i think the market is saying we don't lead a lot mar. the market still expects that a

deal will be done so that we'll get a patch, so to speak. this has been a good week. 80% of time this week is generally to the plus side. >> you'd still buy the dips here? >> yes. many shows have been on cnbc sending their own personal message to washington and starbucks has a quite unusual and vocal message as well, right? >> very vocal. i don't know why they didn't go with rise above. i prefer that quite frankly. the origins of the message that starbucks is using today comes out of timothy leery. i don't know if you really want that connection with lsd and the likes in washington, but come together, try, it whatever it's going to take, and i think the market is telling congress they need to come together and rise above because this is foolish. you're embarrassing us to the world. get over it. >> if you're in d.c. tomorrow

and friday and you go to starbucks, the barrister will write come together on your cup. >> coming up, it won't be the end of the world if we go over the cliff, really? stick around for our cliff discussion and more video on the fiscal cliff as well. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. what starts with adding a friend... ♪ ...could end with adding a close friend. the lexus december to remember sales event is on. this is the pursuit of perfection. your doctor will say get smart about your weight. that's why there's glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. i honestly loved smoking,

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okay. two and a half minutes left. we've talked a lot about the resilience of the markets even in the face of the fiscal cliff market. maybe the market has been taking this in stride. look what happened today. we almost got to 20, the yellow flag area. we haven't been to 20 on the vix since back in july, early july, and today we're up 3.7% at 1928. however, look at a one--year chart of the dow comparing it to the vix. what often happens is when the

vix peaks as it did in june and july, that can mark a bottom in the stock market so we're starting to move up again. i'm just saying. not trying to forecast anything and here's what happened today at the dow, sort of falling off here in the latter part of the hour but not off. off the lows of the day. down 21 points. material stocks were the strength today. up 1.5%. everybody else was either unchanged or lower. what do you make of the increased volatility or increased fear here, david darst, as we go into the end of the year? >> one of the best charts is the vix being high. it was a time to buy. in chicago that's a famous saying. when the vix is high it's time to buy. >> we high enough yet? >> not yet, not yet. got the fiscal cliff issues which you've talked about a lot here. >> yes, we have. >> jobs coming out on friday. morgan stanley looking for 185,000. basically the housing market, you had the case schiller numbers today. it's looking a little bit better. you got that in the plus column.